Capital improvements, green waste composting on Monday BOS agenda

A five-year plan to repair and improve county property, county employee service awards and two appeals concerning green waste composting are items on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors' Monday meeting agenda.

At 9:30 a.m., the board will again take up the issue of setting priorities for items listed in the county's Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan. The Executive Office presented the plan May 14, and the board put it off to give the board time to study the General Fund Unmet Capital Facility Needs, according to an agenda summary.

The CIP is characterized "not as a budget document," but as "a planning tool to be used in the budget process," the summary states. The board will on Tuesday consider adopting the county CEO's recommended 2013-14 budget plan. (See front-page story in today's edition.)

The CEO's suggested list of priorities for projects over the next five years includes $6 million in roof repairs for county buildings; $1 million for new property tax billing software; $500,000 for Americans with Disabilities Act retrofitting; $150,000 for jail control panels; $500,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning retrofitting and replacement; $600,000 for deferred maintenance; $1.5 million for countywide document imaging; $1.5 million for a jail remodel and $1.3 million for county vehicle replacement, among other things.

"There are several County facilities that are in critical condition as it pertains to roofs," the document says.

The county Administration Center on Low Gap Road -- which houses the Board of Supervisors' chambers and several departments -- needs $3 million roof replacement, and the county's Public Health and Mental Health building in Ukiah needs a $1 million roof replacement, according to the CIP.

The plan has the county's general fund paying for the replacements, with an initial payment of $1 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year, then four annual payments of $1.25 million through fiscal year 2017-18.

Also in need of roof replacements are the county museum in Willits, the Sheriff's Office Training Center on Low Gap Road, the Yokayo Social Services Center on State Street, the Ukiah Veterans Administration building and shed and the Willits Integrated Services Center.

Among other projects on the list that were discussed at length during the May 14 debut of the updated CIP was the replacement of the software the county uses to send and track property tax bills, and keep property records.

The current software, "acquired at no cost' from Sutter County," according to the document, dates back to the 1970s and "represents a significant risk of catastrophic failure.

The county Executive Office recommends splitting the $1 million cost for a new system between fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15, and paying three annual payments of $100,000 to maintain the system starting in 2015-16.

At 10:30 a.m., the board will present employee service awards for 15 to 35 years of service, followed by a reception.

At 1:30 p.m., the board will hear two appeals " to an unclassified use determination that small indoor green waste composting facilities' are a type of general industrial use," according to a summary.

The determination "distinguishes smaller, less impacting composting facilities, which only compost a limited amount of green material, from larger composting facilities that process all types of compostable materials, which the County previously classified as a major impact services and utilities" use, according to the summary.

It would also "allow C&S Waste Solutions to establish its proposed small green material composting facility within an existing industrial building, in a former pear packing plant," subject to county and California Environmental Quality Act review.